Know you’ll get better.

Know you already are better than you were.

Today you’re running 10 miles without a problem. A year ago, you struggled with 3. Next year, maybe it’ll be 15. Simple. You were good, now you’re better and you’ll get even better.

Do you know you’re better now than you were a year ago? Yes. Especially with something easy to calculate like running. How will you get better? How do you know you’ll keep getting better? Because you’re trying, you’re making an effort. Also, you just know you’ll be better because you’re not at your top yet. You know that.

What about something less concrete, less easy to measure? Let’s take, just a random selection, writing. A year ago, today, I finished what I thought was a fun exercise: The Secret of Markree Castle. It was meant to just be that, a fun thing I wanted to do with my buddy from China and his kids. “Hey, let’s write a book together with our kids about them actually being at your wedding in Ireland. Sound like fun?”

Today, March 31, 2016, I’m putting literally the final sentences together on book number three in that series. That one book became three and I’m editing, polishing and finishing it to be published tomorrow, April 1, 2016.

Well, I must be at the top of my game. I wrote a book a year ago and now I have another one. I even snuck in one in the middle there on December 17, 2015. But I know I’ll get better. As the story unfolds, my main challenge is reigning it in. It’s not a trickle that I’m trying to get out of the garden hose. It’s how to hold onto the fire hose and find something to keep me firmly on the ground. I’m flying, but in the future I’ll be soaring.

How do I know?

I know because I’m doing it, I’m living it and I’m seeing it. I’m not living the past, I’m living the present and I’m creating my future with every step of my present day. I see (and cherish) what’s good today and know (and see how) it will be better in the future. But it only happens through practice.

I’m excited about today. The third and final book of the series done and on digital bookshelves a year after the first one. A year ago I was on cloud nine. Today I’m somewhere in the atmosphere. I can’t even imagine where I’ll be in a year. But I can’t wait to be there.